Trip to the South Bank

Since Marta’s dear brother Michal and dear brother Grzesiu arrived in London to stay with Marta and Kemal, there’s been very little time for all of them together to go and have some quality time.
They have therefore decided to wake-up as early as possible on Sunday (that turned out to be 1 o’clock), eat some quick breakfast and set off on their first sightseeing tour.

The weather was lovely, though a bit windy. In good moods they set off to see some sights. First, they passed by Marta’s office (by bus) which is near St Paul’s Cathedral. Then, they wanted to see the famous Temple (the one that appears in the Da Vinci Code), but unfortunately, there was a movie being shot there at that time and so there was no entry for normal people. However, they managed to photograph some weird looking people; presumably they were the actors for the movie that was being shot. But who knows….

Here are the weird looking people:



Then they walked towards the river Thames, crossed the bridge and joined the crowds on the South Bank. Here are the crowds on the South Bank:



The biggest part of the trip was a visit to the Tate Modern gallery. First, they wandered around looking at some incomprehensible paintings and sculptures, then (very exhausted by the amount of art they were exposed to in such a short period of time), they ventured into the 7th floor Tate Modern Café. The view from the café was worth the visit (and there were some chairs to rest their tired parts upon). They stayed there for a while and made a plan about what to do next. Some were for coming back home and going to beds, some were for pressing on with the journey (as otherwise it would be a very disappointing Sunday trip to The South Bank). They decided to press on.

Here they are, pressing on:



Not far from the Tate Modern, they stopped for a coffee in Starbucks. They also visited the Globe theatre, dear brother Michal, bought a nice wallet for himself that says Alas! Poor Yorick! on it, apparently a quote from Hamlet. They decided that it would be nice to go and see a play one day in the theatre. It is a special kind of theatre – very historical and very special. To think that Shakespeare actually worked there and showed his plays there, makes it even more special.

Here is the Globe theatre:



With their moods a bit lifted by the coffee sipping through their veins and the new future plans about seeing Shakespeare’s plays in the original surroundings, they walked on along the river, passing by a medieval prison (described as the most notorious prison in London), a docked ship, London Bridge (dropping into a very nice pub on the way, or more precisely, to it’s toilets), by a display of very funny looking guitars and up to the Tower Bridge.

Here is one of the funny looking guitars:



Here is the Tower Bridge:




Very tired and very hungry and after waiting about 20 minutes for a bus to take them home, and after not a very comfortable journey on the bus (a big and noisy family of large people got on the next stop), they finally arrived at a small Turkish restaurant in Dalston Kingsland Road.

Here is Marta’s dear brother Michal and dear cousin Grzesiu, in a small Turkish restaurant:



The meal they had was delicious, albeit enormous. It was followed by Turkish tea (which after small additions of lemon and sugar made by Marta, tasted like tea that their Grandmother would make for them long, long time ago) and so they drunk it to to the memory of their Grandmother and her tea, and then they went slowly (as their stomachs were so full they could hardly move) home.

It was a really nice day. Full of adventures, happy moments, delicious food and lovely tea. Kemal was in a good mood throughout the whole day and made everyone else laugh a lot.

Here is Kemal, making everyone else laugh:



They have decided to go on more of those sightseeing tours. It’s so much fun!